Every once in a while I meet someone that from the minute I see them, intrigues me: What is that person’s personality like? What are their hobbies? Why did they play the bassoon in middle school? What does their closet look like? Why did they move from the midwest? What made them fall in love with their significant other? For me, one of those persons includes my friend Blaine.
Have you ever met someone like that? Male or female, young or old, friend or stranger. I think it happens to us often if we are engaged in the world around us: in graduate school, at a bus stop, in a board room or at the grocery store.
Blaine was a couple of years ahead of me in graduate school. I knew he was an artist and his work was respected in our community. He was a friend of a friend and like most small schools, we knew each other in passing, but certainly not well. Upon graduation, Blaine moved to Chicago and married his love, Margaret, after one of the sweetest proposals I’ve known. I keep up with him through his blog and always enjoy knowing what’s next for him. He is eclectic, no doubt. An actor, an artist and a writer, Blaine is the Creative Director at Willow Creek Community Church just outside of Chicago.
Cultivating creativity is his schtick and on his blog I enjoy both his honesty and his perspective on continually creating engaging material. Blaine is in a position where he must constantly create — whether that’s from something new or out of something old, Blaine’s job is one that many of us dream of but few are capable of maintaining. Like most artists, he struggles with the normal ups and downs of working in an area where it’s easy to get stuck just as common as it is to create a masterpiece.
Three things I’ve admired about Blaine: his amazing wedding photos (featured on the landing page of this photographer), the red walls he painted in his new Chicago apartment years ago and his fearless determination to put himself out there at all costs. When I feel like my dreams for this blog are foolish, unattainable and boring, he is one of several people I reference to keep going. He’s experienced writer’s block and somehow, kept writing, painting, dancing and creating.
When I think of Blaine, I immediatly want to think outside of the box. Blaine wrote an aptly titled book, Untitled, about his thoughts on the creative process. It’s at Amazon, iTunes, and Barnes and Noble and I agreed to share my thoughts on it, if he agreed to be interviewed for the people i meet.
When I think of Blaine Hogan, I think of a plaid button down shirt — and not the kind you find on the sale rack at American Eagle (which I’m not knocking, by the way, since I own one myself.) A very trendy, well pressed, sharp looking plaid shirt with jeans and some really cool shoes. Why is that?
Because it’s more than likely true!
With that said, I am more than certain your closet has more than just a plaid shirt. Where do you go for style inspiration and what do you feel most comfortable in — styles, labels or fabrics.
As I’m getting a little older, (turning 32 at the end of January), I’m starting to settle back into my Midwest roots – having grown up in Minnesota and now living just outside Chicago. There was a time while I was bouncing around the country doing theatre gigs, that I had very little sense of “place.” I find that my sense of place is beginning to define my style more and more. There is a heartiness and simplicity that I’m attracted to and that I find most comfortable. Which means on most days you can find me in a good dark pair of jeans, a plaid or denim pressed shirt, and my Frye boots. Also, because of my age, and maybe it’s because I just became a dad, I’m wanting to buy things that aren’t too trendy but are much more classic. Can you recommend some new stores to me? [But of course, have you heard of my favorite store J. Crew?]
If I had to peg your style (this time, non-fashion), I would probably say you are more of a modernist. Post-modern hipster, maybe? Either way, you are pretty forward thinking with your style and that’s evident in the way you dress, create art and engage design. I would consider myself somewhat trendy but am drawn to more the classic, timeless looks in my creative outlets (fashion and interior design) because of my fear of looking outdated too soon. What draws you to stay modern and in what ways do you combat the ever changing tides of style?
I like the cleanliness and uncluttered feel that modern lines bring. Like you, I am more drawn to the classic as well, so I lean toward the post-mid-century-modern arena. I don’t try and fight the tide too much, but I do this by looking back at history. My grandpa’s wardrobe, for example. The tough thing is, grandpa-wear is really in, isn’t it!? Oh well, what’s a guy to do?
Would you share a few of your favorite quotes?
You cannot take anyone farther than you’ve gone yourself. – Dan Allender
We need radical imagination now more than ever – to conceive of some better, alternative, hopeful future. – My wife.
Shame hates it when we reach out and tell our story. – Brene Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection
I’ve never been to Chicago. Ever. If I had one weekend to hang in your city, where would you tell me to go?
Breakfast at the Donut Vault
A walk through the modern wing of the Art Institute
Lunch at XOCO
Ferris wheel ride on Navy Pier
Dinner at Longman & Eagle in Logan Square
Late night show at Second City
Other than your book, of course, can you name a couple of resources that you find helpful on the creative process?
The Creative Habit & The Collaborative Habit, Twyla Tharp; The War of Art, Steven Pressfield; Beauty Will Save the World, Gregory Wolfe./
We graduated from a school that placed an emphasis more on learning how to “be” rather than figuring out how to do. Yet, in the creative process one cannot complete an idea without some form of doing. How do you find balance in both: vision and execution and what do have to say to those who lean more towards the “being” than the “doing?”
Seth Godin calls “doing,” “shipping.” I’m of the belief that if you don’t ship, if you don’t create, if you don’t eventually do, some part of the gift you have to offer the world is being wasted.
In your book, you wrote about how going for runs often helps to get your mental gears working around a new idea. What artists or songs are often found rotating on that playlist?
Passion Pit, The Naked and the Famous, The Brilliance, Jon Hopkins
As I read your book and thought about your words around setting goals and meeting deadlines, I couldn’t help but think about the ideas I’ve often heard about letting go of control and letting things evolve — that life is better lived this way. I do not disagree with you that constraints are needed and that deadlines are helpful but just this week I heard someone say (in a business setting, nonetheless) that our best work is often done during non-commissioned time. You speak of the tension of constraints as being fertilizer for some of our best creative work. Can you push back against the idea that goal influenced work creates less valuable results?
Very good point and I would agree. So much of our best work happens during that non-commissioned time and yet I think nothing gets accomplished unless you are intentional with said non-commissioned time. The point for me is intentionality. Whether it is a deadline or simply saying that I’m going to use my free time well, we must be intentional. I also am a big believer that unless I do the work of sitting down (or whatever the best place is I ideate) the non-commissioned time just turns into wasted time.
In 3-5 quick steps or easy one liners, give my readers encouragement on how to overcome their failures and continuing in their passion, creativity and life.
You are not your failures. If all of life is seen as creative, it takes the pressure off needing to get something from the creative project you’re working on. Wholeheartedness should be your endgame.
To play off of my last question, do you work with goals? How do you set them and in what way do they play a part of your life both in the short-term and long-term?
I work with goals when working on big projects, only because I know I’ve got a deadline and I know I need to break the project up into manageable bits. Additionally, I almost always work backwards. I know how I want the story to end and now I need to break up my time to figure out how to get there. However, if I don’t know how the story ends and I’m just beginning a project, or idea, I make a goal for having a certain number of words written per week or day as I’m trying to free-write the idea.
What would 31 year old Blaine tell 11 year old Blaine?
It’s all going to be okay (and one day you won’t need to wear that t-shirt when you swim).
Almost every creative man has a gadget list. What’s next for you?
Indeed. My most recent and favorite acquisition was a gift from a good friend – the iphone wallet from Hard Graft. It is so beautiful! Gorgeous leather and wool felt. It’s the perfect midwest wallet. Next, I have my eye on a new lamp for my office, possibly from West Elm.
In your book, Untitled, you wrote about the process of “scratching” for ideas — an idea you first found from a favored artists, Twyla Tharp. I’m sure you’ve heard of some interesting ways in which people search for new ideas, can you share a few?
One friend sets an alarm on his phone and every time it goes off he writes down a new idea. It can be a color, a phrase, a song he’s listening to. This process creates a cache of mostly terrible ideas, but the habit is set, and somewhere in that pile is some greatness. Two starter questions I find helpful when looking for new ideas is this, “What do I need to say?” and “What do people need to hear?”
You and your wife Margaret just welcomed your first baby, Ruby, into the world. How has this changed you and in what ways do you dream of cultivating opportunities for her creativity?
First off, I have to admit that Ruby is the best thing I ever made. Ever. When Margaret and I got married, we vowed, quite literally in fact, to devote ourselves to the business of making things. We would make dinners, a home, (if we were lucky enough) a baby, along with the usual suspects like art. When I think of creating opportunities for Ruby’s creativity I think want her to hold the value that all of life is art – all of life is creative. I don’t want her to be able to separate the creativity of living life from finger painting.
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